The present invention relates to an emergency control attachment for a trolling motor and, in particular, to a structure which may be quickly retrofitted to an existing trolling motor of the normally remote control type.
A trolling motor is considered by many types of fisherman to be a very important, if not critical, piece of equipment which is required to fish properly. The trolling motor is usually a small electric motor which is designed not to scare the fish, as compared to the main motor of the boat which allows the fisherman to get from shore to the area to be fished relatively quickly. The trolling motor is used to allow the fisherman to slowly traverse the area to be fished. The trolling motor is also usually mounted on a mechanism that allows it to be easily removed from the water when not in use and stored on the deck of the boat.
Because many fishermen prefer to maintain their hands free to manipulate a fishing rod, trolling motors with remote foot treadles which control direction and speed of the trolling motor have become popular. Unfortunately, the foot treadles have a high frequency of failure. Most often the failure is in the directional control of the prop. When this occurs, the fisherman has little choice but to return to shore for repairs, since most of the parts which could be controlled by a fisherman without the remote system being operational are below the level of the boat deck when the motor is operational and a fisherman cannot be very effective at fishing if he is spending most of his time leaning over the front of the boat trying to control the direction of the prop.
It is also noted that a majority of the trolling motors are of the type having a tubular sleeve fitted in one way or another to attach to the boat and having a control shaft passing through the sleeve. A first motor with a prop is attached to the bottom of the drive shaft and this motor drives the prop which provides a driving force through the water. A second motor is normally mounted to the top of the control shaft and is utilized to rotate the control shaft to place the prop in accord with the direction in which the fisherman wishes to proceed.
Since both of the motors are sealed in one way or another to prevent water from entering into and damaging or shorting them, it is desirable to not attempt to modify such a motor which does not come pre-equipped with some type of alternative control. In addition, the second or directional control motor normally has a directional arrow on the top thereof which allows the fisherman to know in which direction the prop is propelling the boat. Therefore, removal of the directional control motor may create guidance problems for the fisherman.